morph posts

Over the past few years, video games have become more and more advanced, and the technology has included attaching dozens of electrodes to actual athletes in an attempt to better simulate their real movements. I've suspected for a long time that it would make sense to use these games as a learning and teaching tool for athletes.

So I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Johan Santana, he of the 2004 AL Cy Young Award and a ridiculously dominant recent record for the Minnesota Twins, prepares for opponents by locking himself in a room and playing PlayStation.

As reported in the recent issue of Sports Illustrated:

"Either the night before or on the morning of the game, he'll check out the lineup of the team he's facing, take in how the hitters have done against him. Then, alone on his bed, he'll pick up his PlayStation Portable, plug in the team he'll soon be pitching against for real, and go to work. ...

"'Believe it or not, sometimes I see things in video games that will come true,' Santana says. 'Particularly in the last year. They're coming up with some good games, so realistic -- the stats are so accurate, and you can go from there. I'm sure a lot of players will agree with what I'm saying. Because it gives you ideas. I see the scouting reports, though I don't go by that, and in these video games you can see what the hitters have, how to approach them. It's pretty cool.'"

OK, so not everyone can just play PlayStation and then win 17 straight major league starts. Santana has the physical tools needed to get the job done.

But what if we're not talking about baseball? What if it's simply about being a better informed society that could achieve even greater feats than becoming the first person from a remote part of Venezuela to win the Cy Young Award.

Swap Santana's physical gifts with information, and when tools like PSP and other technology are utilized to tell stories better, perhaps more and more people can stop acting like life (or oppressive governments, or troubling trends that are hard to envision) is throwing them a curve.

Posted by Chad Capellman at 01:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

Major thanks to Matt Thompson, resident genius at the Fresno Bee, for passing along some javascript that fixes that annoying bug that prevents the copying of portions of a css-driven page in Internet Explorer. We've added it to the blog and mediacenter.org and apologize to anyone who ran into the issue prior to the fix. Here's the script:

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
document.body.style.height = document.documentElement.scrollHeight+'px';
-->
</script>

To gain other wisdom from Mr. Thompson, check out my interview with him during The Media Center's Whose News? Symposium at Harvard.

Posted by Chad Capellman at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I came across this post on craigslist and it struck me as the epitome of the classified ad of the future:

100 DOLLARS TONIGHT.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply to: anon-70719741@craigslist.org
Date: 2005-04-28, 7:52PM EDT

I need some very simple PHP/MYSQL coding done, and I need it now.

I'll give you 100 bucks, but it has to be RIGHT NOW.

email me. I"m here.

this is in or around TRYST COFFEESHOP
no -- it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interestsCompensation: 100 bucks

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/cpg/70719741.html

These types of messages are already being delivered to social networks through mobile devices, and that trend will soon grow to larger and larger audiences.

Time will tell who is best able to dominate the business aspects of this evolution, but the way I see it, Mr. Newmark is a good bet to end up in the winner's circle.

Posted by Chad Capellman at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

Editor's Note: The following is from Brenda Trainor, President and Founder of Frontier Trail, Inc.

Today, during a presentation made by Lucy Hood, senior vice president of content and marketing for NewsCorp, I learned that the current best selling mobisode in the USA is Paris and Nicole trying to change diapers at a day care center.

Gawd – is this how we have come to define the social benefit of mobile technologies?

Clearly not in this example – at least not obviously.  But from a social behavior and technology application, today I actually enjoyed seeing Paris and Nicole (very atypical for me) in a cool use of a cell phone.  A Mobisode (that means “mobile episode” and the term is trademarked, just so you know) sends a short video clip, for a charge, to your mobile phone.  It is clever, one-to-one marketing that has the added advantage of generating revenue for the provider.

Have you ever wondered why it is so hard to find a mobile phone that only works as a phone?  Wonder no more, cellphone providers are simply very anxious to get video-capable phones in your hands in the hopes that someday you too will spend $.99 for a minute of an episode of mass media pablum.  They are teaching you a new habit – to use your phone like a television with no need for a living room.  I suspect no one wants you to think about what it costs you – it is unlikely that you would ever spend $30 to watch a half-hour of Paris and Nicole’s antics if it came on your tv – but for the convenience of having it sent to your phone – wow! – open your wallets.

And to think that people complain about their cable bills.

We are humans, so many of our behaviors are learned and then they evolve in response to our changing environment.  We also crave commonality, and despite our disputes, we like to share information – communication and interaction is essential to our human health.  With these kinds of mobile technologies we are deploying new ways of sharing stuff – so when we can share cool stuff while walking to school, or at the office, or at a street fair, it is human nature to think that is a good thing.

When the telecommunications industry teaches the adoption of technology from person-to-person they call that viral marketing.  It is what happens when Katie tells Milly about the funny episode she just watched, and then Katie teaches Milly where to find the download site on Milly’s phone, and then Milly buys it for herself.   Viral marketing: the buying behavior spreads like a virus. 

Marketers think this virus is good.  I’m not so sure.

But if a virus is what it takes to deploy better technologies and to teach new habits to get useless information, perhaps the illness is an important part of the cure, if eventually we develop access to useful information too.   I will be convinced if the technologies and habits that help people seek out information will also be used to assure that we build pathways and repositories where ‘useful’ information is also available, accessible, and not placed out of the market by technology, pricing, or other barriers.

Posted by Chad Capellman at 12:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The following six audio files from Mobile Media are now available:

Mobile and Media: The Fox Perspective
Lucy Hood, SVP of Content and Marketing, News Corp. | Download MP3 (39:34, 57 MB)

The Mobile Experience: Asia, Europe, North America
Scott Smyers, Sony Electronics, Platform Technology Center of America | Download MP3 (27:01, 39 MB)

Mobile Digital Media: How Will Content & Business Models Evolve for the Mobile Market?
The market for mobile entertainment is growing in the U.S. and abroad. Who are the players? Which business models are succeeding?
(first 12 minutes) Scott Rafer, President and CEO, Feedster
(next 8 min, 30 seconds) Scott Fox, CEO, Global View Partners
(last 8-plus minutes) Q&A for both Rafer and Fox
Download MP3 (28:49, 42 MB)

The mobile technology landscape: How information suppliers fit with competing technologies on one hand and human behavior on the other
Jeff Lorbeck, Vice President and General Manager, MediaFLO | Download MP3 (29:21, 42 MB)

Mobile media: What’s next: New tools and emerging behaviors
Mitch Ratcliffe, Persuadio, Red Herring | Download MP3 (23:04, 33 MB)
Brian Hecht, CEO, Kikucall | Download MP3 (29:12, 42 MB)

mobilemedia

Posted by Chad Capellman at 12:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Attendees of The Media Center's Mobile Media event took a tour of the Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC) at the University of Southern California. There they saw and participated in demonstrations that included 3D face modeling and recognition, 3D Haptics simulations, automatic portrait rendering and a biology video-game.

See video

mobilemedia

Posted by Chad Capellman at 01:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Chris Kyriakakis, deputy director of the Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC) and the founder and director of the Immersive Audio Laboratory. talks about how the Internet will shift from simple browsing to a more realistic experience and how improved immersive technologies can enhance journalists' abilities to deliver a scene to their audience.

See video

Download MP3

mobilemedia

Posted by Chad Capellman at 01:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)